


Bright Little Subtleties

by Silverheart



Series: A New Equation [3]
Category: Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-03
Updated: 2013-03-03
Packaged: 2017-12-04 03:43:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/706137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverheart/pseuds/Silverheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam finds it necessary to spend an evening with the Bradley family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright Little Subtleties

It had been a week, and it turned out there were many things Sam was not equipped to deal with. So he surrendered to inevitability, and got help.

 

Alan had gotten that amused paternal smirk on his face when Sam sort of explained (Sam's half-assed lost foreign student with a concussion explanation shouldn't have passed muster) while Lora had just laughed and swept off with Quorra for a long girls' chat. At least, Sam assumed it would be long. He couldn't even figure out where to start.

 

"Things have been going well," Alan said, taking a seat on a nearby couch and gesturing for Sam to do the same, "Not that the numbers are showing it, but they will."

 

Thank God. They weren't going to talk about Quorra. Sam wondered if Dad had ever told Alan about the Grid. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. The rest of the world doesn't seem to share your opinion."

 

"And why does that matter?"

 

Sam laughed. "I remember this after-school special."

 

"Except, here, they'll never believe in you. It can't matter. You need to keep fighting."

 

"You think I can?"

 

"Yes, but like I said, it doesn't matter. You need to."

 

He thought of Dad, and his long, horrific stillness. "Guess that's true."

 

"How are you holding up?"

 

Did he know? Sam was so fucking tired of ambiguity. "It's been a long week. I'll get through, though. Have to. Keep fighting, like you said."

 

Alan smiled. Weirdly, it made Sam think of Tron- who'd spent at least an entire day trying to kill him a week ago. He wished he'd met the program when he wasn't an acrobatic, glowing Darth Vader. Sam imagined that he'd been a lot like Alan, though probably with a bit of superhero thrown in there.  The thought made Sam feel like a kid again.

 

"You knew Dad better than I did," Sam started, then stopped. It took him a moment to put his thoughts together. "Was he the man I thought he was? Just...amazing, and a genius,  and brave, and...I don't know, _Dad_."

 

"Kevin..." Alan drummed his fingers on his chair's armrest. "You don't realize what hindsight and mourning will do to your image of your friend."

 

"Try having him as your father." Who had just died in front of you.

 

Alan nodded. "Kevin was a genius, no doubt about that. He had a good heart. But he could be cocky and very damn irritating. Actually, he _usually_ was cocky and very damn irritating. And he never took things the way he should."

 

That made Sam laugh. "By that you mean he was never serious like you."

 

"In a way. He could get swept up in some grand design, some more wonderful puzzle, forgetting what was right in front of him. That kept happening more and more before..." He trailed off into an uncomfortable silence.

 

"It's okay. I'm beginning to understand that was a part of him, a big part of him." He shook his head. He might as well just say it. "He's dead, Alan. I know that now. No getting around it."

 

Before Alan could do anything but give him a sad, sympathetic look, their women descended upon them. 

 

Quorra hugged Sam very tightly around the neck. He frantically tugged on her arm until she relaxed her grip enough to let him breathe. "Sorry," she muttered embarrassed, "The phrase 'clung to' doesn't really convey the subtleties of the gesture, I guess."

 

That sent a special feeling coursing through his chest.  He'd expected Quorra to be more alien than she was, but she was observant and smart and adaptable. It was the subtleties, especially the physical ones, that made her seem awkward in this world.  So did the recent bout of pyromania, but he was pretty sure they'd worked that out.

 

Lora laughed and gave Alan a quick kiss. Sam rolled his eyes. He'd stick to his juvenile disgust at their gushiness until the day he died, thanks.

 

Even if the way Quorra stayed with her arms resting on his collarbone made him want something a lot like they had, warm and cozy (and simmering hot behind closed doors and walls that were way too thin, a Bradley trait Sam had learned of at thirteen, to his horror).

 

"I think she understands things, now, Sam," Lora said, "You may not entirely enjoy that, though." She toyed with her husband's hair idly.

 

"What did you tell her?" He looked at Quorra, who was grinning like she had the first time he'd seen her face. "What did she tell you?"

 

The other three laughed gently. Sam didn't even bother to look annoyed.

 

Lora made them coffee, and they talked about things that mattered less and meant more. Everyone swapped recently read book titles and reviews, and Alan went off into the glories of Firefly (better late than never). Quorra and Lora took off into a discussion of the complexities of DNA and its similarities to lines of code. At some point, they got too far ahead for Alan and Sam to keep up. The men offered to clean the mugs as an excuse to get away. Lora sent them to it with a wave of the hand.

 

They sat the mugs in the sink and watched the women two talk and ignore their existence. This was normally how it went with the fairer sex, but they usually were talking about makeup and clothes, not complex science. Call him a jerk, but Sam found the subject change made all the difference between 'she's so annoying' and 'she's so awesome.'

 

Alan cleared his throat. "Whatever you think of your father, Sam, don't let it catch you up. You're not him, believe me. This is your life. This is now. This is your fight."

 

"Yeah. It's just confusing."

 

Alan threw his head back and laughed. "What, do you think it ever stops being confusing?"

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to those cozy times at home with family, when things mattered less and meant more.


End file.
